After a report brought to Councillors last week suggesting that 40mph roads in Dunfermline should not have speed limits cut, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Dunfermline South James Calder has uncovered shocking levels of speeding taking place in some of these roads. He is concerned that this could have disastrous consequences. On Lapwing Drive, the mean maximum speed is 50mph, on Whitefield Road it is 63mph and on Carnegie Avenue it is an extremely high 79mph.

Cllr. Calder has said,

Earlier this year I brought my motion to Committee to reduce 40mph single carriageways in Dunfermline to 30mph for some very good reasons – local residents complained to me about the noise impact and also with safety concerns about their children having to cross these roads for their school buses. In particular, there is a section of Lapwing Drive where there is no crossing and children need to cross every day.

“After these figures were provided to me by the Fife Council Transportation team, my concerns have increased further. Some drivers are clearly going too fast and this is a real safety risk for the residents who live in the areas. In my view we should be taking every possible measure to tackle this, and reducing the speed limits in these mainly residential areas to 30mph seems like a no-brainer to me.